Terrain Software Reasearch

To start this unit of I am going to be researching various software that will allow be to create, edit and modify terrain.  I already have the software available to do this in Unreal Engine however I think that it would be wise to research various external software that will allow me to make terrain and see what features they have that Unreal Engine may not.  The software I will be looking at are:

-Vue

-Terragen

-DEM Earth

-World Machine

Vue

Vue is published by e-on Software and the price of the software ranges between £59 and £1,307.  It provides its users with tools for creating and modifying terrain maps, predefined terrain types, terrain resolution, sculpting, erosion, geological effects, procedural altitudes and material painting.

Terragen

Terragen is published by Planetside Software and the price of this software ranges from $199 to $699 and offers a range of various updates which can also be purchased.  It provides its user with a huge variety of terrain editing depending however on what package they buy as some will not be available to those who buy cheaper packages of Terragen

DEM Earth

DEM Earth also provides its users with a number of useful terrain editing features such as a Geo Modifier, a Track Graph, a Poly Importer, a Smart Extruder, Smart OSM and DEM Earth Object.

World Machine

World Machine provides its users with Powerful Fractal Generators, Graph Based Interface, Powerful Erosion Modelling, Realtime 3D Views, Macro System, Mesh Exports and users can create shapes, insert roads and draw masks.

All of these software's have good features that would really help me in this unit for editing terrain however the biggest downside for these software's for me personally is the cost.  As a student my budget is extremely restricted and I simply cannot spare this kind of money, therefore going forward I will be looking at much cheaper alternatives going forward like Unreal Engine 4.